Trouble with Oxygenator

[murphyslaw]

I've been having a hell of a time trying to get my oxygenator 2.0 kit to work properly.

For quite some time, I was unable to attach an o2 bottle to the regulator without losing all the gas in the process. The o2 would shoot out with a force that made it difficult to screw the bottle in, and by the time I get it, the bottle would be empty or near empty. Last week I found this thread (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/leaking-o2-oxygenation-kit-2-0.568923/), tightened the pin inside, and problem solved!

Excited to finally use it again this Sunday, I put the wand in my cooled wort but when I turned the knob nothing happened. I took the knob part apart, and pressing with my finger on the black piece inside would release o2. I tried a couple different ways of putting the knob back together. The way I believe was correct did not work. I tried a different way and it would let the air out, but it came out everywhere (out the stone but also leaking through the knob), and turning the knob to off didn't stop it. I got about 15 seconds of 02 in my beer before it ran out.

When I take the knob apart, there's a spring and a little gold cap inside. If I put the cap on the black piece in the regulator and fit the spring over it with the knob coming after that, no air would come out. When I reversed it (Knob>gold cap>spring>black piece), the air would come out but it was uncontrollable.

I wonder if anyone else has run into this issue or might otherwise have an idea as what I'm doing wrong?

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I'll be interested to hear the answer to this. I got a valve (pseudo regulator) for those small disposable O2 tanks with a lot of homebrew gear that I bought. The first time I went to use it I thought I'd bought an empty O2 bottle because I got nothing out. I just did the shake it up method of aeration and moved on. I bought another bottle and it did the same thing so I concluded the valve was bad.

Bought a new one and it worked with both O2 bottles, so the original valve was bad. I didn't even think to try and take it apart (even though, as an engineer, I almost always have a go at fixing things...with great success).

At least the new one worked well and did a great job aerating my 1.128 OG stout.

 

[SEndorf]

I'm sorry, I don't have a solution to the problem with the small burnzomatic bottles, but after a long time wrestling with the same issues you're having, I got fed up and bought the 5 lb tank version. This isn't cheap, but I justified (at least in my mind) a large part of the cost is the tank which you'd have to buy in the welding supply store anyway. Also those small burnzomatic bottles are outrageously expensive and don't last long.
This works great, and not a bad investment if your brewing in the long term.

 

[murphyslaw]

This is what it looks like inside. The second picture is how I believe it should work.